1-1 By: Pitts (Senate Sponsor - Cain) H.B. No. 450
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 3, 1999;
1-3 May 4, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Economic
1-4 Development; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to disconnection of a telephone call made by an automated
1-9 dial announcing device.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 37.02(a), Business & Commerce Code, is
1-12 amended to read as follows:
1-13 (a) A telephone solicitor may not make a consumer telephone
1-14 call to a consumer unless:
1-15 (1) the telephone solicitor identifies himself or
1-16 herself by name and identifies the business on whose behalf the
1-17 telephone solicitor is calling and the purpose of the call
1-18 immediately after making contact with the consumer to whom the call
1-19 is made;
1-20 (2) the telephone solicitor makes the call after 12
1-21 noon or before 9 p.m. on a Sunday or after 9 a.m. and before 9
1-22 p.m. on a weekday or a Saturday; and
1-23 (3) for those calls in which an automated dial
1-24 announcing device is used, [where technically possible,] the device
1-25 must disconnect the consumer's telephone line within the period
1-26 provided by Section 55.126, Utilities Code, [30 seconds] after
1-27 termination of the call by either the telephone solicitor or the
1-28 consumer.
1-29 SECTION 2. Section 55.126, Utilities Code, is amended to
1-30 read as follows:
1-31 Sec. 55.126. DEVICE DISCONNECTION. A person may not use an
1-32 automated dial announcing device to make a telephone call in which
1-33 the device plays a recorded message when the connection is
1-34 completed unless the device disconnects from the called person's
1-35 line not later than five [30] seconds after the call is terminated
1-36 by either party. If the device cannot disconnect during that
1-37 period, a live operator must introduce the call and receive the
1-38 called person's oral consent before beginning a prerecorded or
1-39 synthesized voice message.
1-40 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-41 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
1-42 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-43 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-44 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-45 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-46 * * * * *